


wildflower in a rose bouquet

by silverfoxflower



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Dream Sex, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fade Dreams, pre Alistair/Tabris - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:40:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29706945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverfoxflower/pseuds/silverfoxflower
Relationships: Nelaros/Tabris (Dragon Age)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5
Collections: Nobody Expects the Dragon Age Smutquisition





	wildflower in a rose bouquet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fairfaxleasee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairfaxleasee/gifts).



Nia could have sworn that she laid down to sleep in a tent upon a bedroll and blankets piled atop the hard, cold ground. She remembered the taste of Orghren’s frighteningly strong spirits, the damnable flush in her cheeks as she leaned into Alistair’s warmth, watching his animated retelling of a battle they just stepped out of. Telling herself that their proximity was only because it was growing colder, because her mabari was barking loudly in the distance and she wished to listen to his words. She remembered pulling herself away sharply when it was just the two of them left, hearing Alistair’s faltering goodbye as she hurried to her tent, her heart hammering in her chest. 

Nia could have sworn that she had not laid down to sleep … here.

In a bed with soft blankets, smelling of dried heather and lavender. With the sun streaming through the windows, casting the small cottage room alight. With the strong arm of a man around her waist … his body warm against her back. 

“Good morning,” a low rumble in her ear. 

Nia froze, because. 

Because that was Nelaros’ voice. 

She turned, and he let her, sliding onto his back with a drowsy smile. He was as she remembered - golden hair and fine features, strong shoulders and kind eyes. On their wedding day, assuring her quietly of his nerves. On the floor of the lordling’s manor, cut down and lying in his own blood-

“You look worried,” Nelaros said. His voice was sleep-rough. He lifted a hand and rubbed it comfortingly down her arm. “Bad dream?” 

Nia opened her mouth to tell him-

Tell him what? That he had _died_? Well he was right in front of her, wasn’t he? Wearing the ring which was the pair to the one he gave her. Even now, as their fingers linked, the gold bands made a soft noise as they met in the fold of their palms.

_But the screams and the fire and the blood_ … Nia shook her head sharply. Even now they were fading from her memory, growing slipperier and slipperier in her grasp.

"Yes," she sighed, "a bad dream."

He hummed, and turned her face towards his with gentle fingers under her jaw. She felt his lips brush gently over hers, comfort and light blotting away the strange memories.

Sighing into his kisses, Nia rubbed her hands over his warm shoulders and felt the strength of his body. He was hard against her softness, broad against her slimness. They were a perfect fit, from the moment of their match.

Nelaros inclined his head to deepen the kiss and Nia froze at the sudden beat of unfamiliarity. Where did this come from? They must have done this many, many times previously. At her sudden hesitation, Nelaros pulled back, smiling with fondness as he rubbed her cheek with the back of his knuckles.

"Do you remember our wedding day?" She asked hesitantly. That was, of course, where it had all gone wrong. 

"Yes," Nelaros said evenly, pushing up to lean on one arm. "I remember thinking how lucky I was, that you were so beautiful. With the flowers in your hair and the sun on your face." He smiled. "I was so nervous. Then you said that you didn't really want to be married at all."

Nia flushed. "I didn't mean ... to _you_." She plucked at the pillowcase. "I'm sure you weren't too thrilled at being paired off to someone you've never met either." 

"I never really thought of any other alternative," Nelaros shrugged one shoulder. 

"Yeah," Nia said softly, "I was always the odd one out, wasn't I?" Always questioning, always pushing, never quite fitting into the tightly-woven fabric of her small community. 

Nelaros reached forward and idly twined a lock of Nia's chestnut hair around his finger. “Do you remember our wedding _night_?” he asked.

“Of course,” she said, then frowned. It was fuzzy, in her mind. 

“You were hardly a blushing rose,” he said, laughing, and the picture became clearer. Nelaros undressing her by candlelight, sweet and gentle and just a bit nervous, his fingers slipping on the laces of her dress. She had helped him, in the end, and then pulled off his shirt. He seemed to be taken aback by her forwardness, but not altogether put off. 

“Well,” Nia said, flushing, “it was not a big a deal as all that.” 

“Ouch,” Nelaros grimaced, and she pushed at his arm. 

“You know what I mean!” Nia sighed, flopping onto her back and looking at the ceiling, the dust motes spinning in the yellow sun. “I wanted to ... get past that first bit. The awkward bit. I wanted to … get to where it got good.”

“My eloquent wife,” Nelaros said, and kissed her on the shoulder. 

It was easy, then, to think no more of it. To close her eyes, and turn in his arms, and draw his mouth to her again. To dissolve under his hands, which now did know her body so well, know where to touch and where to kiss. The underside of her jaw. The tender part where shoulder met neck. The scar over her sternum where she-

The scar? Nia frowned, running her fingers across her chest, but feeling nothing but smooth skin. 

"So distractible today," Nelaros said with gentle humor. "I should see what I can do about that."

\--

He kissed the wings of her collarbones, the swell of her breasts. She startled and laughed breathily as he nipped her sensitive ribs, where she was ticklish. There was, again, the juxtaposition of familiarity and unfamiliarity, though surely they must have done this many times indeed. She dragged her blunt nails through Nelaros’s golden hair, arching with a sigh as he put his mouth on breasts, then between her legs. Hot. Slick. She made helpless noises as he slid his fingers into her, making her slick and plump and throbbing, making her arch into the pleasurable stretch. All along, she was intensely aware of the ring on her finger, its weight, its tightness against her skin. She worried it with her thumb even as pleasure danced under her skin, making her hips press in rhythm to his fingers. 

“Are you ready for me?” Nelaros asked, returning up the bed to kiss her, and Nia nodded, humming around the taste of her on his tongue. 

They lay nestled on their sides, and Nelaros held her waist from behind as she spread her thighs, sighing shakily as he filled her, his press steady and unhurried, his lips soft as they brushed across her bare shoulders, the slope of her nape. 

The stretch of his entrance … Nia had the sudden thought that it had been a while, though surely that couldn’t have been the case. 

When Nelaros was fully seated, Nia wriggled her hips, making him groan.

"Would you like to do the honors?" he asked, with mock-ceremony.

Nia smothered a laugh, turning to receive a kiss on the corner of her lips before she reached back, gripping Nelaros's hand as she pressed back against his hardness, the thrilling fullness which was making her breath grow short. For a while they were lazy about it, unhurried in their rhythm as Nelaros rolled his hips to fill Nia with deep, slow thrusts, slowly layering the waves of pleasure until she was gasping with it.

Nia’s eyes fell closed and she arched, slipping her fingers between her legs, feeling the place where they were connected, the flesh hot and slick. She touched herself, and shuddered with it, crying out as Nelaros groaned in her ear. The movement of his hips quickened, and she pushed back to it, feeling one hand grasp her breast. The brush of his thumb against her nipple made her tremble sharply as she felt the pleasure spiral low in her belly, tighter and tighter until she felt herself cresting that peak, gasping as she clenched around Nelaros’ hardness. 

“Nia,” he gasped, and she felt a hot, slick slide as he pulled out, a throb of loss before he rolled her onto her back to resheath himself. 

She moaned loudly around his tongue in her mouth, entwining her arms around his shoulders just as she did her legs around his hips. She was sensitive from her climax, but that just made her wild for it, bucking into his thrusts, her fingers tangling in his hair. 

“I love you, Nia,” he whispered, and came with a low sound, his hips stuttering against her thighs. 

“Oh,” she said softly, as she felt his spend spill within her. “Oh,” she pressed her wet face against his, and did not know why she was crying. 

There was no noise, for a moment, but the sound of panted breath in the quiet room. 

“You know, don’t you?” Nelaros asked softly, shifting his weight to his arms to look her in the eye. His expression was pained, regretful. 

“Yes,” Nia said. She raised a hand to cup Nelaros’ cheek. “I’m sorry, I … you know I can’t stay. I wish I could, I wish-” she sealed her lips before she said those treacherous, impossible things that had no place to exist, even in the dream-world of the Fade. She shook her head again. “I’m sorry. You must hate me.” 

Nelaros shook his head, his brows drawing together. “No, Nia. I … I wanted you to stay because I thought you would be happy here. That I could make you happy. I don’t know what your life is like out there … but it cannot be easy.”

“It isn’t,” she admitted truthfully, “but I have something I have to do … people who need me.” 

Nelaros nodded sadly, his mouth pulling briefly into a grimace. “You should go to them, then.” He shifted off of Nia’s body, and she pushed into a seated position, her legs swinging off of the side of the bed. 

“I feel like I’m leaving you again,” she said, her voice low as she buried her face in her hands. “You came for me. You didn’t even have a sword, and I … I left-” 

“Hey,” Nelaros pressed his hand against Nia’s arm. “I have no regrets in my choices. Though,” he said ruefully, “I do wish I would have known just how capable you would be in saving _yourself_.” He rubbed his knuckles over Nia’s arm, his voice growing sad. “I would you have a life, Nia, if not with me, then out there. Do not waste it thinking of what could have been.” 

Nia breathed out shakily, rubbing the tears from her eyes. She captured Nelaros’ hand, and pressed a kiss to his knuckles. “Thank you,” she said, smiling. “Thank you.” 

He pressed up to kiss her one last time before she stood, and the warmth lingered on her lips as she stepped into the light.

And opened her eyes.

\--

"A group of rogue mages attacked the camp as we slept," Wynne said, taking her hand from Nia's forehead. "They put you to sleep, cast you deep in the Fade." She shook her head. "I was starting to fear you would never return to us."

"How long was I out?" Nia asked weakly, pushing up onto her forearms. 

"Three days," Wynne said gravely, and Nia's mouth opened in shock.

"No …" she mumbled. "In the dream-"

At Wynne's look she fell silent. Time worked differently in the Fade.

"Alistair there was waiting for you the entire time," Wynne said, standing with a smile. Nia turned her head to see Alistair's shadow freeze just outside her tent. 

"Thanks, Wynne," she said, squeezing Wynne's hand. "I'm feeling a lot better now."

Wynne nodded knowingly, and departed. She paused to say something to Alistair on the way out, and a moment later he was crouching, entering Nia's tent with a chagrined look on his face. 

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," she replied softly.

Alistair rubbed his neck, glancing away. "So how long do you think you're gonna nap? Not really setting a good example for your troops there, Warden."

"Yeah," Nia laughed, reaching over to smack him on the arm, " _I'm_ the bad influence."

In the shadows of the tent, she saw the glimmer of Nelaros' ring on her finger. As Alistair blustered around, getting her water and making idle comments on her sparse decorations, Nia idly twisted the ring off of her finger and examined the pale line it left behind. The skin of a girl still new, left in the Alienage square with flowers in her hair and the sun upon her face.

"What have you got there?" Alistair asked, passing over a cup of water. 

Nia dropped the ring into her pocket. "I'll tell you later," she said, and smiled.


End file.
